The Pyrrhic War
by Slyvena
Summary: (AU) First Contact. In 2157 a Turian patrol encounters a race unlike any other they have before. How will the Council react to a Humanity radically changed and alien to our modern form? Prepare yourself for an extremely AU story, no holds barred, the galaxy will never be the same.
1. Chapter 1: First Contact

Hello, long time writer but first time I've thought I'd actually write something while other people view it. Heavy AU, Prepare yourself for a humanity simultaneously familiar but also extremely alien to 2017.

This fanfic is gonna be quick and dirty (short chapters, frequent updates), the sci-fi is gonna be about as soft as it comes (really Mass Effect is not exactly 'Hard' sci fi in the first place) but overall true to the setting. No humanity ROFL-stomps (at least none that don't make sense), no dichotomy of Humanity is a diverse group with many distinctions but every other race embodies a singular feature.

Will be a bit of non-chronological storytelling but don't worry, it will all fit together and should be pretty clear. I already know how it ends so everything will flow toward a natural conclusion.

2 things I am going to change because they always baffled me about the setting:

 **Armour is now useless against mass-accelerated projectiles.**  
Without shields ships may as well be made out of tissue paper as far as that much kinetic energy is concerned. Armour is still useful against other weapon systems like lasers/etc.  
This means once you bring ship's shields down to failure or critical, you start firing slower rounds designed to spread out on impact and transfer their full kinetic energy into the hull, normal rounds would just smash straight through leaving a clean hole and minimal damage. So even once a ship's shields are down they might still be able to remain in the fight for a bit longer as it is easier to dodge the rounds that would finish them off. (Of course if your opponent is just too fast you can keep firing high speed rounds at them, each shot will do minimal damage unless it is lucky enough to punch a hole through something vital, but eventually you will hit something important)

 **Numbers of ships are roughly 1000x lore  
** Your civilization has existed for literally thousands of years with vast industrial infrastructure spanning multiple planetary systems and you have built a couple dozen (if that) kilometre long ships? Honestly I think x1000 is very conservative but it will allow me to retain my sanity.

Reviews and criticism where I get the Mass Effect lore wrong (I'm only human) especially welcome, with all that said, let's get this show on the road.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - :

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - :

Chapter 1

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - :

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - :

 **2 Hours after First Contact** / Council Space, The Citadel, _Councillor's Chambers_ :

Asari councillor Tevos stood beside her fellow councillors, their attention set intently on the screen a local com-bouy was directing into the room, the Turian General Caius standing alone in the feed. Turian's were known for a somewhat stiff body posture as a default but Tevos noted Caius stood like a man defeated.

"This is General Caius Noster" the recording stated "I fear I have made the greatest mistake since the Rachni war"

The councillors remained still, unsurprised, watching. They had each already seen the recording themselves, the purpose of this meeting was to decide a course of action from its revelations. Salarian councillor Valern had called the meeting, Spartacus the Turian Councillor coming straight from an unrelated Hierarchy related matter had only seen it once while in transit and had requested the group viewing.

The recording continued

"At your time of watching through the frigate dispatched to the nearest comm bouy it will have been 2 hours since first contact with an intelligent space faring race." The General spoke with an even and level voice, all emotion bar a slight hint of dread removed from his voice.

"Shown here are the bodies we have recovered so far from the wreckage" At that cue several images and diagrams appeared before the councillors revealing the corpses of a few dozen of these creatures. Tevos was surprised that viewing the bodies still unnerved her, it was her fourth viewing but these aliens were just so, so similar to an Asari. The likeness was enough to evoke the instinctive revulsion of looking at one of her own dead. It did not help that almost all of them looked unharmed, almost like they were sleeping. The vast majority had perished in the vacuum of space after the destruction of their craft. Tevos wasn't sure if she heard Valern mutter 'unfortunate' under his breath.

The General was far from finished, backtracking from his jump in the timeline of events "Upon routine patrol past Relay 314, an unidentified vessel roughly 400m length and similar overall dimensional proportions to galactic standards" a slight pause "and no eezo signature". The recording waited for a moment, anticipating the shock Tevos had indeed felt the first time she had seen the footage. "… which at the time was assumed to be a unknown stealth technology somehow capable of hiding a detectable signature"

"Impossible" Valern stated matter of factly "Element Zero manipulates fundamental force, no obscuring possible"

"Valern, please" Spartacus gestured vaguely toward the screen, contemplating deeply.

"…which given our own inability to decipher their response and their apparent refusal to cease the activation of the relay, demanded a more decisive response…" General Caius was slowly allowing more emotion to leak into his words as he spoke, Tevos was not surprised; she knew what came next.

"I ordered a low velocity shot, 10% power, from the Cruiser ' _Valient'_ to be fired on the vessel; Whilst manoeuvring ourselves between them and the relay to make our intentions abundantly clear." The general swallowed " I did not anticipate the result, our assumptions of stealth were incorrect, as later observations of the wreckage in the attached file would confirm; the vessel indeed contained no eezo and no external shields. The single round tore into their front section, ripping off a full third of the ship and putting the other two thirds into a lethal 20G angular spin."

A reconstruction of the incident played across their screen as the general spoke; Tevos saw the alien ship, utilitarian, functional and frankly bland in design sitting motionless as the general's flotilla consisting of 4 frigates and the single cruiser _Valient_ manoeuvred inbetween the newcomer and Relay 314, firing the single shot near the end of the reposition. As the ship exploded into pieces, Tevos once again found it hard seeing the close ups of the aliens, many alive as they initially spewed out into space spinning and flailing, quickly becoming still. The likeness to an Asari was uncanny. In a morbid irony, those in space likely survived longer than those still trapped within the high speed spin of the wreckage, 20Gs was enough to kill even a Krogan in less than 10 seconds.

A new series of images were now displayed, and these were why the Council had met immediately. General Caius spoke as estimated material costs, power requirements and other figures ship construction related figures played across the display. "The revelation of non-eezo based technology being possible is deeply concerning, the technical details are too much to cover here but my 2nd has included a detailed analysis of the implications in the attachment marked 'priority'. To put it simply, any species that has mastered the previously thought impossible field of non-eezo based space faring technology we must assume has also achieved an unrivalled mastery of eezo technology beyond our imagining. Additionally, the fact they see fit to construct ships without any eezo suggests that their fleet must further exceed what their incredible eezo mining capacities must be."

Tevos weighed the general's words just as she had been ever since first seeing the report, they were undeniably true. The vessel had been found activating a relay, which meant not only were they aware of eezo technology but also how to use a Relay without an on-board eezo core, another technical feat thought impossible before today. The recording was almost over, all that remained was the general's request.

"Which is why what we do now is of the utmost importance" the general appealed "I cannot spare any ships from the recovery efforts, we are attempting to reduce the remaining spin if by some chance this race possesses a technology that has kept them alive, we have taken in many bodies and my examiners observations have provided what I believe is our best hope of a diplomatic solution"

The final image of the recording appeared, it showed detailed diagnostics of the 'corpses ', electrographs, thermal imaging and a dozen other readouts "The aliens may not be dead" There was hope in Caius' voice "Limited nerve conduction and fluid transportation throughout the bodies implies a possible hibernation state induced by vacuum conditions. Given this race's technological advancement, an artificially engineered vacuum survival response is within the realms of possibility"

Putting aside the troubling implications of a race that freely modified its citizens' genetics, Tevos agreed with the final words as the general spoke them "I am requesting specialists that can care for and prevent any further damage we may be unknowingly causing, my soldiers are doing their best but are woefully underqualified for this task, we will depart as soon as the recovery of bodies is complete but time is of the essence, Spirits protect"

And it was done. A course of action must be decided.

"He's right" Spartacus said "The military implications of such technology are indeed deeply troubling"

"Violent reprisal for perceived unprovoked attack and deaths likely" Valern added "Speculation of combat doctrine equally troubling"

"What do you mean?" Tevos asked grimly.

"Likely large portion of fleet eezo-free with small number consisting of powerful eezo powered ships" Valern explained "Approach to combat, swarm enemy with inexpensive and easily replaceable non-eezo ships, once weakened, finish with more advanced eezo weapons."

Valern was right, the implications of this incident and what it could mean for the council races hung in the air. Of course like a typical Salarian, Valern was not finished speaking.

"Technological advancement implies age, age implies ample time for expansion, 'small number' of eezo capable vessels could be comparable or greater to entire council fleet" He concluded with something Tevos could tell he was not entirely convinced of "Possible Prothean progeny"

"I don't believe so" Tevos reasoned "Unless the scope of Prothean technology and aesthetics is far wider than first thought. No. I believe this is first contact with a new race. Furthermore they are likely a slowly expanding culture who builds up each system with a lot of infrastructure and people before venturing further. It's the only way I can explain how they would have time to reach this level of technology whilst also avoiding any contact with the council before now"

"There is also a chance we are greatly overestimating their capacity" Spartacus added

Valern spoke what Tevos thought "How?"

Spartacus explained "Relay 314 is in a region known for many eezo 'dry' systems. It is possible there is a localized absence or extreme rarity of eezo in nearby unexplored space. This race could be native to an eezo free system and have spent millennia trapped around their local star. Now that we know non-eezo technology is possible I believe it equally likely that a race given ample time and necessity could derive its methods without having any knowledge of eezo until after they had expanded outside their home system."

"Naively optimistic" Valern interjected

If Spartacus was insulted he hid it well, surprising Tevos with his reply "I agree, we should assume the worst, as at this stage the most likely scenario is of an ancient, large and powerful foe… I mean race. We should dispatch the specialists, a diplomatic envoy for when they inevitably come looking for their lost ship and mention reparations as soon as communication becomes possible." And after a slight pause "But we do not give away our hand, our success may even come down to a well-played bluff"

Tevos hated what Spartacus was saying, it seem disingenuous to play politics around an incident given everything was essentially their fault, but she could not disagree with his logic. "Agreed, nearby fleet resources should be diverted to assist in any way possible"

Valern nodded while agreeing "Departure should be immediate"

So the Council was in agreement, Tevos doubted this would be the last time they met on this incident today.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - :

 **1 Minute before First Contact** / Near Relay 314 system (EDX-243), The Cruiser _Valliant's Bridge:_

Captain Caius was uneasy. System designation EDX-243, their current destination, was as unimportant as they came. No mineable resources, no habitable planets, strategic placement insignificant. This was exactly the problem, the next system with any chance of breaking the monotony of the past 4 weeks of fringe patrol was another 2 weeks away. Still, one of EDX-243's three secondary Relays was dormant and Council Law required all dormant Relays regularly inspected for any signs of interference.

"Arrival in 30 seconds Captain" Dexsia, his second, spoke.

Caius was glad to have her. She was very capable, likely to have her own command within the decade.

His patrol consisted of 5 ships, the 4 frigates _Chias,_ _Niphon, Rextus_ and _Sillo_. Finally the cruiser _Valiant_ from which he commanded,

"Standard readiness" Caius stated "I want everyone as sharp as our first jump 4 weeks ago" he reminded himself more than anyone. His crew likely felt the same as him, but he trusted Turian discipline completely, his men could do this for months and he would never hear complaint.

They were not approaching via any of the existing Relays, having come from a series of non-Relay systems that occasionally harboured piracy; this meant they would drop out near the inactive Relay using their own engines.

Dexsia managed the entry "Coming out of FTL in 3..2..1.. successful arrival. All systems green, Sensors up. Standby…"

Caius waited for the sitrep.

"No eezo bar Relays and the Patrol in system" Dexsia sounded off "2 Active Relays show 14 uses since last inspection, standard expected traffic" So far so good "Dormant Relay 314 is… wait a moment… … confirmed inactive, system clear and secure Captain" Dexsia finished with the usual satisfaction.

"Excellent" Caius said, successfully hiding the uncharacteristic melancholy his boredom had seemed to put him in this morning. "Begin impulse toward Relay 315 and preparation for-"

"-Sir unidentified object detected point blank range, 1023 Kilometres from Relay 314! Approximate size 400m" Dexsia cut in

"What?" Caius stuttered "What is its designation? Are our sensors damaged?"

"Unclear sir, we are picking up no eezo signature" Dexsia's concern was clear "No thermal profile, we picked it up on optics when it passed in front of a star and we now have a lock"

"Space debris?" Caius inquired. Though incredibly rare in the vastness of space, large space debris gathering around Relay's between inspections was not unheard of.

"Standby" Dexsia stated waiting for her readouts to refine "Correction sir, minimal thermal signature, it's hotter than space debris sir"

That settled it then, either it was an enormous chunk of radioactive material, frankly almost impossible, or it was artificial. "Begin full burn for interception" Caius ordered "Why am I not looking at it on our screen now" disappointed Dexsia had not brought up a more detailed scan of the object already without having to be told.

Was it a spy satellite? No, far too large Caius thought.

"Trying sir" she said "It's almost entirely dark and somehow further obscuring optics, we are only 3000 kilometres away but I can't get a detailed resolution. Hold on, its passing in front of another star, got it" Dexsia said as she pinned a few keys and an image came up across the bridge.

Caius could feel the tension in the room as the image of an alien vessel, a design never seen before played and rotated across the screen. It was strange, similar and yet alien to any design he'd ever seen. It had the same vaguely rectangular and elongated geometry of other interstellar vessel yet also had no discernible edges; the entire surface was a barely defined series of smoothed mounds and protrusions, its sleek profile looked as though it could squeeze between a hole half its actual size. A ship that size should have a centrally mounted spinal cannon, yet no obvious weapons existed on its external structure. Some kind of Stealth Freighter? No that didn't make any sense. Then it hit him.

Time seemed to stand still a moment. First Contact? Here? It was always a possibility, something he had trained for, but no one ever thought they would be the Captain to initiate diplomatic relations with a new species. Caius realised his arm was sore, he was gripping his chair tightly. Loosening his grip, he steadied his mind and mentally fell back into his training, then took action.

"Cancel interception burn; readjust to 2000km holding distance on alien vessel. Prepare to release a first contact package.

"Yes sir" Dexsia said. Caius could hear the trepidation in her voice, no the doubt the realisation of exactly what was happening had also occurred to her.

"Continue system scans for other possible 'stealth' ships" he added

That is what it was, wasn't it? A new race's stealth ship, capable of hiding its eezo signature, containing its thermal profile without cooking those inside, blocking most optics somehow. What an amazing technology, game changing. Were they cautious explorers? Or probing invaders? Caius hoped for the first but would be prepared for the later.

"We are at 2000km sir" Dexsia reported. "First Contact Package is prepared to be sent on your order"

"Okay" Caius felt serene, like a spectator in his own body. His name would be in history books, he quickly pushed that distracting thought from his mind. It was time to initiate contact.

"Begin.."

"Sir!" Dexsia cut across him "Vessel has made sharp course correction toward dormant Relay 314. They've transmitted their mass! It's activating, 20 seconds to jump, what are your orders?"

No No No. This was all wrong. "Have _Chias_ and _Niphon_ move to block their path" Caius ordered

The Relay had been inactive, it was not their way home, more than likely the Dormant Relay 6 systems from this one in EDD-221 was where these aliens had come through, it should not take much discouragement to dissuade them from their path.

"Sir _Chias_ and _Niphon_ are moving to block, alien vessel's path unchanged" The tension was palpable in the room as Dexsia raised her voice higher for the next report "Vessel has increased speed by a factor of 20, they are exceeding the interception buffer, Niphon and Chias will not close the gap in time"

Dammit. Caius' options had just rapidly diminished, protocol was clear. Council law now permitted and indeed would soon require pre-emptive ordinance. The only time any vessel could be allowed to pass through forbidden Relays was by Council Order. Perhaps if they were an alien race returning home he could have liberally interpreted the laws, but since they were activating a dormant relay not passing through a recently activated one, such exemptions could never apply.

"All ships max burn to intercept as close as we can, calculate firing vectors. 10% Velocity" Caius said the last part with dread "Charge weapons, all ships prepare to fire on my order. "

"Sir" Dexsia interjected "The foreign vessel has shown the capacity to accelerate more than 5 times faster than our best engines could ever achieve, we have no idea how they are keeping their crew alive through such a burn"

"What is your point 2nd?"

"Are we sure we want to fire on a ship that has demonstrated multiple points of technological superiority?" Dexsia said, coming uncomfortably close to insubordination.

Council Law was clear, absolute. Surely his Patrol's intentions were obvious? How could the alien's fail to perceive he wanted them to not activate the Relay?

"Ship course unchanged sir" Dexsia added grimly "5 seconds until jump"

" _Niphon_ , fire one warning shot on their shields" Caius ordered. The display in the bridge showed the single round leave the _Niphon_ flying toward, missing and then sailing past the alien vessel. It had done the impossible, dodged a kinetic round despite their near point blank range, even with its 10% velocity no Council ship could ever manage such a manoeuvre without killing all on board crew, anything larger than a frigate would have actually torn itself apart.

Caius now had two choices. Allow them to jump through the relay and be Court Marshalled or fire to disable.

"All ships… target engines… fire"

'Engines' was a loose term, his Patrol targeted the rear section that although having no discernible openings was radiating thermal energy more than the rest of the vessel.

Caius didn't know when he had stood up, he steadied himself against the side of his command chair as the _Valiant_ mildly shook with its low power shot. It was done. Several dozen sets of ordinance closed on the foreign vessel from multiple angles.

To Caius' amazement he witnessed a near miraculous display of agility as the alien vessel performed course adjustments that at times would have exceeded 200Gs, in the end only failing to avoid a single round. The image of the impact on his display would stay with Caius for the rest of his days; the ship possessed no shielding whatsoever, the single round tore into and gutted it like tearing apart dough. Metal flowed as much as it fractured, red hot mush generated from the friction spewing out into space followed by the contents and occupants of dozens of decks, writhing and grasping at the nothingness as they slowly became still; the ship flying off in two large chunks roughly a 3rd and 2/3rds of the whole respectively, still haemorrhaging their contents out into space.

Caius had never fired first. He'd never realised it until this moment but in his entire career he had never fired first. He had only ever been involved in defensive battles or coming to the rescue of those already under attack. This felt different to those times, his opponent hadn't fired back. They hadn't fought at all, just tried to run and he'd shot them in the back. They were not pirates, criminals; he didn't know what they were. This didn't feel honourable, this didn't feel right.

"Dexsia… status report"

None of this made sense. They had no shields. Did they really have no eezo core? How had they entered this system, started activating a relay?

"Enemy vessel is destroyed sir, all vessels report no damage" she spoke slowly.

"Does the wreckage show any signs of armaments?" Caius said. If it turned out this vessel was nothing more than a transport he was not sure he could bear the shame.

"Captain?" Dexsia did not know how to respond

"I.. Good work Second" Caius recovered "Begin recovery of the enemies' dead and initial salvage of the wreck. Prioritise establishing a workable translation for 2nd contact… and deciphering the fundamental workings of their stealth technology… then meet me in my quarters, a report must be urgently sent"

Caius had a feeling things were going to get alot worse before they got better.


	2. Chapter 2: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Hello my friends. Sorry for the delay, went ahead and started a ASOIAF-Potterverse "A Man Shall Not Be Named" crossover because why not.

After some compelling reviews justifying why there are so few ships in Canon, I have relented and abandoned the increased ship numbers I declared in chapter 1.

Now fair warning, what you will read in this chapter is not 'Space Magic'. Everything has an explanation, it might take a long time for that explanation to surface, but trust me, I've written everything internally consistent to the same sci-fi standard as Canon. I think you'll be quite impressed when the explanations eventually get dovetailed in.

I'm still getting the hang of formatting these things for the site, seems like I haven't made any big boo boos.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - :

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - :

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - :

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - :

 **3 Hours after First Contact** / Relay 314 system (EDX-243), The Cruiser _Valliant's Bridge:_

Caius observed the salvage and recovery operation in full mobilisation through the many displays bridge on the bridge. The Virtual Intelligence sorting and highlighting numerous logistical readouts to keeping him informed on how things were progressing overall.

Shuttles passed back and forth between the recovery zone in which the still rapidly spinning wreckage stood and the 5 vessels of the Patrol group; ferrying the few remaining unrecovered bodies of which Caius truly hoped were not in fact dead. Having them on board was important for multiple reasons, both as a sign of good faith should more of their kind show up (or if things turned hostile, ransom) and also to learn what they could of their physiology.

To that end Caius keyed into the VI display to bring up Doctor Trifer down in the Medbay. The number of bodies meant additional room in corridors and other miscellaneous sections of the _Valient_ had needed to be cleared to fit them all. But any real observations beyond simple triage required were made in the Medbay proper. Of course the bodies were completely stable and required no treatment to remain so after being brought in from the vacuum; an amazing fact in and of itself. Caius hoped Trifer would now have more than the basic report he'd forwarded onto the Council. Confirmation on whether they were in fact alive or not chief among them. Trifer appeared on the display.

"Well Doctor, what can you tell me?"

Trifer was small in stature for a Turian, coming in at just under 6 feet. His voice had a similarly mild tone "More than before, still frustratingly little" he summarised

"Give me what you have" Caius replied

"The alien physiology is entirely unique" Trifer begun "The creatures seem to vary between 6 and 9 feet in height, 2 presumably gender based morphologies, external similarities to an Asari have proved superficial; aside from similar overall proportions they diverge in dramatic ways. This was made readily apparent when I was unable to create an incision through this one's skin with any of my implements" Trifer gestured to a half whole alien on a table behind him, only its upper half remained the rest presumably torn away during their vessel's destruction.

"What do you mean unable?" Caius inquired

"I mean that the skin of these creatures could not be severed with a blade, I ended up almost overloading my surgical laser which is normally used to slice bone in order to take a sample"

 _Troubling_ Caius thought "Continue"

"Honestly everyplace I look I find something quite remarkable and a little unsettling; these beings have undergone previously unthinkable genetic modification and augmentation."

The thought of a race that freely modified their genes despite the obvious danger concerned him deeply. "How have you reached this conclusion" Caius asked, if he could somehow establish peaceful second contact, this would definitely be an obstacle with the Council.

"Well take their skin for example, it would be impossible to achieve a result such as this without significant interference. It is likely a combination of genetic alteration and then continual augmentation throughout infancy. I cannot theorise any other method that would make this remotely possible, I haven't identified the composite materials used but I doubt they are naturally occurring." Trifer paused "Oh, by the way, these things are incredibly hard to kill"

The fact they had been recovered from space made that point redundantly obvious, still "How so? "Caius inquired

"Well take my friend here" Trifer paused "He's not dead" A smile played across the Doctors face knowing the surprise he must have caused

More like Shock then surprise, Caius looked at the ruined corpse behind the doctor through the VI screen. It simply was not possible that _that_ was still alive.

Trifer continued "Nerve conduction, minimal fluid transfer, slight thermal output implying hibernating metabolism. This guy is just as alive as any of the others brought onboard" Caius was still shocked as Trifer went on uninterrupted "…and as you can see here every blood vessel or cut along the severed cross-section has sealed itself, presumably mere moments after the injury" He was enthralled in his description of the alien biology

So it was confirmed then. The Doctor was sure they were still alive.

"..Doctor" Caius interrupted "I want all staff working with the bodies armed at all times. I will be sending guards to each room as well"

"Captain, I said they were alive I didn't say they were in any condition to…" Caius simply stared into the VI screen "…yes Captain sir, I'll have my staff collect their weapons immediately"

"Were there any other critical details you had to share, Doctor"

"No Captain, I'll compile a full report as soon as possible. Details will be limited though, once I realised this one was still alive it put a stop to most of the tests I would have been able to perform."

"Dismissed"

And the feed to the Medbay was cut. Caius could still see the alien's form in his mind. He imagined what it must be like to see them act and move. He probably would not need to wait that long. Once the last bodies had been collected the patrol group would return to Turian space and await further instruction. Then Caius could hand this over to a higher authority and his largest worry would be someone looking for a scapegoat in whatever political fallout would come out of this whole saga.

Now he needed to go attend to less urgent concerns, some technician in engineering saying the eezo core was under unidentified minor stresses that could lead to a failure in a few weeks. "Wasn't I annoyed things were uneventful" he half joked to himself too low for any of his crew to hear as he stepped off the bridge into his adjacent personal quarters.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - :

 **3 Hours after First Contact** / Council Space, The Citadel, _Councillor Spartacus' Chambers_ :

Valern entered unceremoniously to his counterparts chambers. The Salarian Councillor took note of his surroundings despite having seen them many times before. A quirk of his kind's psychology.

Spartacus sat at a desk in the centre of a modestly lit and minimally furnished (for a Councillor's) room. The doors to the adjoining rooms were both closed.

The Turian Councillor was still, quiet.

"You wished to meet" Valern started

Spartacus took a few moments before responding "Yes, we need to discuss an incident of great importance"

"Tevos is not present" Valern said, the meaning behind his words clear. 2 Councillors meeting without the 3rd on such an issue was unorthodox and implied other motives.

"I am only authorised by the Primarch to discuss this with you" Spartacus clarified "I myself only became aware of it shortly after the Council meeting"

"Very well" Valern conceded "What is this incident"

"The Hierarchy has made an error" Spartacus surprised Valern.

He continued "2 weeks ago a response fleet was dispatched to a hostile first contact scenario. A patrol and the immediate reinforcing ships had been destroyed by an unknown adversary"

Valern's mind raced. A 2nd First Contact with another alien race two weeks prior? The chances of two new species being discovered so close together were minuscule.

"A 2nd First Contact 2 weeks prior to the Relay 314 incident?" Valern vocalised his thoughts

"No" Spartacus corrected "Relay 314 was the location of the incident 2 weeks ago"

 **Correction:: Not 3 Hours after First Contact**  
 ** **Correction::** Actually 2 Weeks after First Contact**

"I don't understand" Valern started "Wait, I do. Turian Hierarchy delayed Council receiving Captain Cauis' report" Spartacus' slight nod confirming the Salarian Councillor had correctly deduced the situation "Reasons for subterfuge numerous, explanation can wait, why the change of Hierarchy policy?" Valern finished

"Because of General Arterius" Spartacus said the name almost grinding his mandibles "The situation has become much more complicated"

"Council vessel aggressor in peaceful first contact. Result: foreign casualty against likely superior military power" Valern responded "Matter highly sensitive, how could General Arterius complicate"

"Trust me" Spartacus said "He found a way"

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - :

 **4 Hours after First Contact** / Relay 314 system (EDX-243), _The Cruiser_ _Valliant's Crew Decks:_

Junaria looked over the alien on the improvised table made from stacked crates. These creatures were fascinating; externally they had many similarities to an Asari in form but oh my were there plenty of differences. For one these aliens were huge, she'd heard from Aulvus that not a single one had come in at under 6 feet. They seemed to have two genders, one similar to what laid in front of her distinctly more Asari like and another with greater mass and musculature that were either the males or maybe some modified warrior caste? She probably wasn't the only one eager to see how they moved and fought. Maybe she would find out, according to Aulvus some proper Doctor types downdeck in the actual Medbay said they were hibernating. The one she was tending too had a large piece of metal shrapnel imbedded in and then out through the upper section of its leg, the wound appeared to have sealed itself, it presented a good opportunity to observe their natural healing process.

That's when she noticed,

It's eyes were open.

"Aulvus?" she said, turning to look at her friend "I think this on…"

Pain. Incredible sudden pain. A hand grasped her behind the neck, the last thing she saw as she blacked out was Aulvus turn to face her, a casual face turning to horror.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - :

Aulvus was looking back over the readings, there was no doubt they had some kind of lingering neurological activity, but there was no way to know just how conscious they were if at all. Was it just some lingering stray neurons or the first true sapient race capable of hibernation? The possibilities were fascinating. Joining the medical strata of the military had been the best decision she had ever made, who would of thought she would witness a first contact event? This was a time of discovery and adventure and she was right there front and centre.

An entire new species, a new culture and way of being. The fact they chose not to arm their vessel with any weapons concerned Aulvus as it meant that the alien culture may be incompatible with the practical and proven wisdom of Turian culture; there was being trusting of the unknown and then there was being naive. Still, perhaps such commitment to passivity had been the catalyst for the stealth technology the rumours of were circulating around the crew, just because a culture was radically different did not necessarily mean it could not be a beneficial relationship, much like between the Turians and Volus.

"Aulvus?" Junaria said from behind her "I think this on…" Aulvus quickly finished off the end of her notes "What's that June?" and looked over to Junaria, dropping her datapad and reaching for her sidearm. The alien gripped Junaria behind the head, pain was clear on her friends' face as Junaria blacked out from the pressure of the creatures' grip.

Every part of Aulvus' body was now focused, she wasn't afraid, there was no time. Just calm, focused. "Put her down" she said, her weapon zeroed on the alien's head. It would only take one press to put the alien down, at this range Aulvus was confident to fire even with Junaria held so close.

The creature, was that a smile? Well it did something with its face, and then Aulvus heard a distinct wet crunch from the back of Junaria's head. Shock stole her concentration for a single moment, she wasn't sure if she fired her weapon, Junaria flew into her harder and faster than she could think, the two ragdoll corpses crashing into the crates stacked against the wall behind them.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - :

Farius was tending to some supplies moved up from med bay when two corpses he vaguely connected as being Junaria and Aulvus crashed into the crates next to him making a tremendous noise and leaving plenty of viscera in their wake.

A trained Turian, Farius did not pause, indeed without any hesitation even before the bodies had come to rest on the ground he had drawn his own sidearm and spun around facing down the room to address whatever danger presented itself. Which is why he was all the more surprised to have his weapon arm caught and held not by the alien corpse closest to him but the one furthest down the room with the leg injury that Junaria had been attending to. He wasn't surprised long though, the alien's fist went through his face and out the other side.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - :

"How is the decomposition coming along" Trifer asked his assistant as he entered one of central Medbays rooms. They were one of a few Turians spread throughout the room.

There were a few tables housing some of the alien bodies as well as numerous other medical apparatus around the perimeter of the room where most of the Turians were now working.

"No luck I'm afraid, I've only been able to extract 7% of the samples components, the rest has proved exceptionally resistant to examination" his assistant replied despondently.

They had been trying to determine the physical makeup of several samples ever since they had taken them hours ago, now that the most powerful decomposition agents they had access to were proving ineffective Trifer needed to consider synthesising some stronger solutions. But there was a certain limit where he would likely begin to destroy whatever it was he was trying to examine. The thought of destroying the answers to so many mysteries was abhorrent to him, his desire to uncover them grew stronger with each new piece he added to the puzzle. That said, part of what was slowing the analysis was that Trifer could not even come up with a theoretical model for what composites their skin let alone any of their organs could be made from. It's hard to test for a substance when you don't know what you're trying to find. The doctor was used to unresolved mysteries, his background in materials science had left him puzzling on the possible makeup of the Citadel for many years in his youth before he had finally given up in disgust and followed other pursuits, other pursuits that had brought him full circle back here he thought to himself with a small grin.

He felt himself pondering how the syllables of his language structure together to make meaning. _"Ah Again?"_ He thought to himself, these meaningless unrelated distractions had been creeping into his mind for the better part of an hour despite his eagerness to focus on the task at hand.

He hadn't even got to looking at their musculature yet, though it appeared structured in a similarly unorthodox manner to the rest of their interior with questions of its own. For one, they didn't have enough of it. They were simply too heavy, weighing in at more than three times what something their size should; twice the mass of an average Krogan! Whatever the main element they had incorporated into their form was it gave them a ridiculous mass to be carting around anything but the lowest gravity planets, even then rendering it only manageable and not at all comfortable. Trifer had one possible theory, perhaps they hibernated for long periods of time with only short instances of movement in between their long rests? They could theoretically overload their existing musculature for a time with adrenaline, but Trifer could not imagine such as system being competitive long term. No, the answer to this mystery still eluded him, for now.

My the grammar of his language was funny, the way words were strung together and flowed into each other to convey thoughts… " _Another Stupid Distraction"_ Trifer pushed the thought out of his head. Maybe he needed rest, these bodies weren't going anywhere soon.

Still, there was so much to discover, every piece of information Trifer gathered only raised more intriguing questions, the most recent discovery since his discussion with Captain Caius was that the alien metabolism was actually endothermic overall, certain sections of their body generated heat but overall it actually drew thermal energy in from the environment around it seemingly without gaining temperature. On the surface this would appear to be energy disappearing into nothingness which was physically impossible. Were they somehow storing the gathered energy through an as yet undiscovered metabolic mechanism? Was this specific to their state of hibernation or a constant fact of their biology? Trifer was determined to discover the answer to this mystery and many others. No worry, he was a very persistent, very patient Turian.

"Give it a bit more time" Trifer said, as much to his assistants as it was to convince himself. "Perhaps after an extended exposu-"

Trifer and the 5 others who were in the room neck's all snapped in synchronisation. They gently fell to the floor without a further sound.

One of the aliens rose off his table. He stood still for a few moments, seemingly looking around the room absent mindedly. Then without further delay walked over to the exit, tore the door off its fitting, left it on the ground next to him and stepped out into the connecting corridor.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - :

"Captain, we have a situation" Dexsia interrupted Caius' thoughts in his cabin.

The Captain had been going through numerous reports on the limited salvage they had brought aboard as well as reviewing Doctor Trifer's more detailed notes. Prompted by Dexsia's communication through the VI on his desk, he rose and stepped out of his cabin into the bridge.

"Status" he ordered

"The alien wreckage Sir, it's… disintegrated" Dexsia said the final word with uncertainty

"Show me"

At Caius' command a display showed the alien wreckage there one moment and then the very next without any warning simply turning to fine powder, its high rate of spin now causing the cloud of fine dust to rapidly disperse out into the vacuum leaving no trace of the former ship or any potential remaining occupants. The readout showed no thermal signature, no abnormal readings at all. The vessel appeared to have simply fallen apart at the microscopic level.

"Sir" Dexsia added to the sitrep "Reports are coming in across the _Valiant_ , all the salvage we brought on board has disintegrated into an unknown powdery sand"

What were these aliens?

"The bodies?" Caius asked

"No reports" Dexsia responded "Sir, Trifer is not responding"

Caius had been confused, now he grew concerned "Ping the guard's assigned to Medbay, what is their-"

At that moment the onboard VI initiated an automatic blue alert. Onboard intruders detected. Doors and bulkheads all throughout the _Valient_ slammed shut, only able to be opened by Turian's of sufficient rank in each section. On the bridge a display appeared showing two separate scenes, Caius felt sick watching one of the two very much awake aliens on screen push their fist through the face of one of his crew. The two aliens were each heading different directions, the VI automatically predicting their path placed one heading toward their engines and the other toward the bridge. How either knew the way was a mystery.

"Declare anti-boarding action, alien's demonstrate expert close quarter combat aptitude" Caius prepared his vessel "There will be no attempt at capture, signal all guards assigned to rooms containing alien bodies, they are to train their weapons on them and fire at the first sign of movement"

In a strange way this was exactly what Caius needed. He was a soldier; this was the first time today he felt like he was actually facing an opponent. Logically he knew the situation had just deteriorated significantly, but if he was honest with himself he was actually relieved.

Across the _Valient_ Turians armed themselves and set out to surround and contain the alien threat, each executing their individual roles with the slick precision that only Turian discipline could produce.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - :

 **10 minutes later** / An empty dreamlike Void:

Where was he? He did not know. What was his name? Kaeso. He not remember much, he had been fighting. There was blood, he hadn't seen it but he could smell it. Yes, fighting aboard the _Valient_ , back to back with his brothers in arms.

But this place was not the _Valient_. This place was nowhere. It was hostile, foreign… alien. It reminded him of Poarrae, the intimacy and closeness of mind melding with her… those long sorely missed memories of shore leave, but here instead of the intimacy of another mind there was simply an opaque wall of nothingness.

 **"Asari?"**

The soundless voice rang throughout his mind from nowhere, it embodied more than could simply be spoken. A total and complete disregard for Kaeso, the voice thought absolutely nothing of him, to it, he was less than alive. It was violence, savagery, power. It demanded knowledge, and without asking ripped it from him; Speaking the second time with confidence.

 **"The Asari"**

It was content, it had stolen all it required from him. Kaeso lacked the words to express his confusion.

 **"Mind melding. Limited potential. Perhaps not all are failures"**

Kaeso suddenly felt as if a great weight he didn't know had been on his mind was suddenly lifted and he rose out of the empty void and back into his own body, opening his eyes aboard the _Valient_ once more. The alien he had been sent to contain standing before him, or rather beneath him; Kaeso was held up against a wall by an unseen force strong enough he thought it might crush him.

His 4 battle brothers lay strew along the corridor, each as if they had fallen limp where they stood without a fight. The memory of the wet crack in their necks as he'd blacked out was a vague pain in the back of Kaeso's head.

 **"Element Zero. The Mass Effect. As expected"  
** "Element Zero. The Mass Effect. As expected"

"H… Who…?" Talking hurt "Who are… you?" The last word fell almost inaudible.

The alien appeared to lose interest for a moment, staring off to its side before its attention returned to Kaeso, its eyes were predatory.

 **"Shhh, hold still"  
** "Shhh, hold still"

Had the alien spoken or was it in his head? Kaeso didn't know, and he didn't have long to think on it before his chest hurt more than he could have ever thought possible. He witnessed his heart explode out of his chest cavity into the alien's hand. As Kaeso's consciousness began to fade and everything turned serenely numb the alien mulled the organ about between its hands thoughtfully.

" **Turian. Zero Potential. Disappointing"**

Kaeso did not know how but he understood the full meaning behind those words, to inform him that among all lesser creatures he was particularly worthless.

The force holding Kaeso to the wall was gone and he slunk down against it, his still beating heart dropped at his feet as the alien walked away.


	3. Chapter 3: Crossing Boundaries

**4.5 Hours after First Contact** / Relay 314 system (EDX-243)

Aside from the events around the _Valiant_ the rest of EDX-243 remained as uninteresting as it had been for centuries prior. A small main sequence star around which 2 nondescript rocky planets and 2 gas giants orbiting around it in that order, none habitable or containing any mining resources of note. They glided through the vast emptiness of the system as they had for eons past.

No one had noticed _Syff's_ arrival. She had translated in on the other side of the solar system to the aliens, well below the orbital plain. Even on maximum acceleration it would have taken her almost an hour to climb the vertical distance up to be in line with the planets'. This was perfect; too far to be noticed, close enough to observe.

The 3 frigates of the alien ships had left _Maiden_ 's wreckage and drawn closer to the solitary cruiser in the formation, small shuttles presumably ferrying reinforcements traveled between them. One frigate had detached from the others and jumped across the system, likely carrying information back to their home territories. Even with their crew engaging her kinsman, the alien scans still constantly scoured the system. _Syff_ was not concerned.

Despite their attempts at discovery, _Syff_ was confident in her ability to remain undetected. While they might have seen through _Maiden's_ stealth, he had been made almost completely of unimbued matter. All over her hull their scans were absorbed into her quark lattice and reconstituted out the other side, rendering her skin invisible to anyone not looking for the 3% reduction in how fast light travelled through the space she occupied. _Syff_ amused herself wondering if she could have come close enough to ram the aliens without them noticing.

0.03 seconds had passed since her arrival.

The death of _Maiden_ and a good portion of his onboard crew was tragic, but also not a fair appraisal of human ability. While _Maiden_ himself was a true Machine Mind, his body had been outdated, the first interstellar ship that humanity had put to the sky over a century ago. He had been kept in service more for symbolic reasons than anything practical, there was only so much one could improve on an original design after the tenth retrofit. Even after all this time _Maiden_ was still the only ship that had ever traveled into a new system by Mass Relay rather than point-to-point Translation.

0.04 seconds had passed since her arrival.

 _Syff_ had now confirmed it was two of her kin that were awake onboard the enemy cruiser. It must have been torture for them to be alone in this system cut off from the Collective for hours. Syff had been here less than a second and already the separation from the Shanxi public was making her deeply uncomfortable. The younger woman was too young and weak to identify, but the older one was clearly Captain Roswell. Syff tried to reach out to Captain, but his mind was cloudy and distant. " _Strange"_ , intra-solar communication was well within his rated capacity. He must have sustained significant trauma. "Vacuum exposure?" she mulled to herself. It didn't matter, trying to reach out to Roswell had taken its time; now nearly a full second had passed since Syff had entered the system and she was feeling the isolation begin to creep in at the edges of her mind. It made her uneasy. She had gained enough initial recon; it was time to signal the response fleet.

 _Syff_ retreated her mind from her exterior hull back inside her bridge. While she had the capacity to be crewed, she was currently the only sapient onboard. The Collective would not risk further losses without the intel she was here to provide. The next step was an uncomfortable one; reconfiguring her cerebrum for a long range beacon impulse. She would lose most of her secondary and tertiary brain functionality for a few minutes, a necessary sacrifice. Plus she would be temporarily unaware of the deep pervading isolation clawing at the outskirts of her consciousness.

A few moments later, the message was sent.

 **"4 Hostiles. Kin aboard largest. Fire on arrival. Begin Translation."**

 _Syff_ returned her senses to the exterior sensors; when her brain functionality returned she would enjoy watching the recording.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - :

Caius had finished compiling his report. If there was one thing that he made sure came out of this encounter it was that this critical piece of intelligence be delivered to the council races. The frigate _Niphon_ had returned from delivering his first report to the Turian Hierarchy and after unloading their anti-boarding crew to assist the _Valiant_ he was now dispatching them again to warn the council races.

Aside from the other new details the speeding away _Niphon_ bore with it a primary message. No matter what happened there was one thing you could never do with this new race. Never let them on board.

Already 37 crew had been given their lives to slow the progress of the two aliens rending a path of blood through the _Valiant's_ corridors. Caius counted his blessings in that only two of the some hundred aliens he'd taken on board had awoken, the rest still slept with very nervous guards training their weapons upon them.

Restricting the female one's movement had proved achievable, for all her inexplicable physical power and speed she still obviously didn't want to be shot. She had initially slaughtered 6 guards with her bare hands, all it seemed to take was a slap or a kick to any part of a brave Turian and their body would simply crumple around the impact like they'd been struck by a battering ram; often spraying a disturbing amount of viscera in the process. But now they had her contained, she had come to a small group of rooms of which the only way out were 4 long corridors in each direction. Around corners she had proved too fast for a Turian to aim and shoot, but now Caius had men stationed at the end of each corridor, the long firing lines the corridors provided effectively pinning her down. Good, this allowed Caius to focus on the largest threat, the male.

Whereas the female at least had to touch someone to kill them, Caius theorised this male was some kind of prodigy biotic. Get within 10 metres of him and you simply fell dead, the few bodies that had been inspected had some vital organ like the heart or spinal cord crushed. The way he moved was less like running and more like flying as he glided through the vessel with determined purpose toward the bridge. When you fired on him it had to be at least three weapons at once, he had demonstrated the ability to redirect focused fire from two small arms and kill those who engaged him, but he avoided groups of 3 unless he could get within 10 metres without giving them line of sight. Caius had wisened up to his enemy's capabilities and adjusted the containment tactics quickly, but the male moved with blinding speed and Caius was not sure if he could block off every avenue of approach to the bridge before his enemy found a way through a gap.

"Sir" Dexsia broke his thoughts "Reactor room is reporting major instability in the eezo core, its leaking high levels of dangerous radiation. Reactor casing is safely containing for now but the instability is growing and the cause is unknown."

Caius knew this was no longer a coincidence "Update the _Niphon_ , this is somehow related to our intruders and.. by the Spirits why is the Deck 7 marshalling point still open?"

"They are almost in position Captain" Dexsia reported "30 seconds"

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - :

The only word to describe it was agony. Separation from the Collective was unbearable. Roswell prided himself on having a strong constitution but the loss of _Maiden's_ hull, the deaths of his kin followed by hours of isolation were taking their toll on his psyche, like being trapped in a room where all the walls were slowing closing in and crushing you. He felt the faint echo of _Syff_ somewhere far off trying to reach him but he'd lost the capacity to reply probably an hour ago.

At least _Syff'_ s presence confirmed Shanxi was aware of this disaster and this hostile race of primitives that fired unprovoked on a single vessel. How long would it be before more humans arrived and relieved him of this great loneliness? He thanked his stars Neimyr was also awake or he'd probably have lost it by now. The comfort of her presence gave him the strength to keep going, he would honour both his dead and sleeping crew.

That brought him to the task at hand, reaching the bridge. You wouldn't notice it without looking, with so many brought on board the aliens hadn't inspected him well enough. A small sphere about half the size of a fist resided in Roswell's mouth. Within was the Machine Mind _Maiden_ , recovered from his bodies' wreckage in the moment of its destruction.

Roswell hoped there was good news " **Maiden, any progress on breaking their security"**

 **"Afraid not, without a fundamental understanding of their programming architecture I am greatly limited in what I can do"** came _Maiden_ ' _s_ reply **"But I have established that as expected they do operate on the same basic binary and logic gate computing foundation, once you give me direct access to the bridge it should take me seconds to assume control"**

This was good news, but Roswell was unsure how _Maiden_ could be so assured **"You are that confident you can overpower their Machine Mind?"**

 _Maiden_ was very confident **"I have concluded they don't have a Machine Mind. I doubt they even have nominally intelligent programs; This much is undeniably true from their sloppy firing vectors; with their weapon technology I could have overwhelmed my evasion attempts using a third the ordinance they did. Not to mention my attempts at breaching security haven't been noticed"**

That is what he wanted to hear. **"Good"**

This meant he could assume control and have some decent Intel to deliver when help arrived. Roswell wasn't sure how much longer he could take the separation. Realistically he knew he was rated to cope with a few more hours before he'd have to hibernate to prevent insanity but his hope was reinforcements would arrive long before that. As it was he'd need months to recover when this was finished.

He was moments away from the bridge, they thought they had covered every angle of approach but he had one more ace up his sleeve.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - :

She had failed.

Neimyr had one job. Reach engineering.

But now she was pinned down with all her avenues of escape cut off.

 **"I am sorry Roswell, they have me contained. I am unable to reach engineering"** Neimyr felt the shame of admitting her inability to her Captain.

Still, she felt him making excellent progress. So they would be successful, Roswell would reach the bridge. She had always been the backup plan, if Roswell had failed she was tasked with rendering the vessel immobile so it could not retreat back to enemy territory with her sleeping kin aboard.

So her failure was inconsequential, a minor conciliation to her pride.

 **"Acknowledged, prioritise your survival. Immobilisation will not be required"** came Roswell's reply.

And after a short delay

 **"Neimyr, how are you holding up?"** concern laced in her Captain's thoughts

In truth Neimyr was actually handling the isolation very well. Both of them had been alone together 2 hours longer than any other human in interstellar history, it had been deemed deeply unethical to perform even voluntary experimentation with isolation after the suicides. The pain was there, but instead of the bright hot pain she'd felt the first time she'd been in a system with less than a million humans, this was a like a deep aching throb. Horrible, but endurable.

 **"I am well Captain"**

Neimyr didn't have to worry about Roswell. He was amazing. He was the one that had saved her during _Maiden's_ destruction, given her the mental imprint of all the alien vessel's corridors and was now showing them how much of an embarrassment their frail forms were. She'd made a good account of herself in the beginning before they had swarmed her. She had not understood how such a simple race could build such powerful weapons both for their ships and small arms, again Roswell had provided the answer.

By some mechanism they had gained access to the material within the protected cores of Mass Relays. Humanity had never found an isolated deposit anywhere but this race had lucked into finding enough to use it as the foundation of their entire civilisation. 'Element Zero' they called it. This explained how they had been able to destroy _Maiden_. Without it they would have never stood a chance. Even with it Neimyr didn't like the alien's chances against Humanities modern warships, if they thought a century old scout vessel made mere decades after the Awakening was representative of humanity they were sorely mistaken.

And once her kin had a sample of this element zero… everything was going to change.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - :

Would it really come to that? Caius was prepared if it did. He was confident he could deny the male access to the bridge, every avenue of approach was covered, all the gaps had been closed. But there was too much at stake to presume these aliens were not hiding some other capacity.

Dexsia handed Caius his key card. Each had had to enter a code only they knew together to release the two cards. Now Dexsia walked to the other side of the bridge standing at her terminal. If a breech was imminent then they would both insert their cards into their terminals, and initiate the self-destruct, scuttling the _Valiant_.

Caius had come to a realisation, the way the alien vessel had moved before its destruction. The speed, the split second adjustments. It meant one thing. Artificial Intelligence.

It was the only conclusion, even more concerning was the way each alien moved at breakneck pace with perfect coordination and poise. They likely had some sort of artificial augmentation or perhaps even an AI inside their bodies. The Geth were well known for their ability to compromise security systems and they had been an accidental creation. But Caius' intuition told him this race had deliberately designed theirs. If they gained direct access to the bridge, they could probably learn everything. Every weakness of council technology. Perhaps even how to spread their infection through the comm-buoy network. He would not allow that to happen. If the alien came within 30 metres of the bridge's bulkhead Caius and Dexsia would do what had to be done.

The alien male was one deck below the bridge some 60 metres away. He had no way to progress further, he'd have to round a corner and face 15 Turian soldiers aiming down a 20 metre hallway or fruitlessly backtrack to one of the other similarly guarded chokepoints.

The alien stood still. Unmoving. Then looked directly up. Caius had no idea what the alien was doing.

And then the metal plating along the roof above the alien ripped away and he jumped into the interdeck layer, tearing apart cording, secondary supports and other minor systems to reach the floor of the bridge deck 50 metres from the main door. Caius had had the main entrance secured of course, the corridors had been short close to the bridge doors so he had instead stationed the guard where they had a clean line of fire about 50 metres from the entrance.

And that's when it made sense. The alien broke through the floor directly in the middle of the guards protecting the approach to the main entrance. Each one falling limp before they could raise their weapons. Caius conceded the game was up, there were no more long stretches between the alien and the bridge, nowhere to set up a firing line to deny him entry. But, to Caius' surprise the male fell to one knee, remaining where he was. Apparently his tactical feat had been one of great effort and taken its toll. He had been using his biotic abilities for almost an hour now, Caius was relieved to see there was some limit to what they could do. But it didn't change the fact that they had won the day. Even if it was the female in its place, the tight corners to the bridge would prove no great obstacle.

What had they done to themselves to become this way? What had they sacrificed? They were living weapons, what kind of existence was that?

"Sir" Dexsia drew his attention to the VI display. Caius expected to have to immediately initiate the self-destruct but the display was instead highlighting something else.

A single cruiser had appeared 800 meters from the _Valiant_. Ridiculously close. It's sleek and curvy design unmistakably matching the alien's aesthetic. The difference being this one possessed what were presumably point defense cannons and some deeper groves likely containing offensive weapons over its hull.

But one thing stood out more than any other. The ship had not come out of a relay or jumped here. There was no mistaking it, it had simply appeared where previously it was not.

Caius briefly considered sending an update to the _Niphon_ , but it had jumped to the other side of the system and at this stage would be nearing the gate to take it to the nearest comm-buoy, it wouldn't receive the light-speed communication before it left the system.

His thoughts were cut off when 3 of the 'point defense' cannons on the alien vessel fired a faintly visible beam at the 3 frigates near the _Valiant_ while a small kinetic round was fired at some 2000 km per hour out of one of the deeper groves at the _Valiant._

One of his crew was sounding off the display's results but Caius barely heard it as he witnessed it himself, where each of the frigates had been struck by the faint beams an entire third of their hulls turned to white hot mush. The struck sections expanded out like a splash of water when a rock strikes its centre. A nearby VI display showed spectrometry results confirming it was a simple laser; the expanding splash was caused by laser ablation from the massive amount of energy imparted into each frigate's hull.

While this happened the alien cruiser itself had turned mostly invisible except for the 3 point defence cannons that had fired which now glowed white hot themselves. They could still detect its mass signature, otherwise the vessel could well have dropped off their sensors even at point blank range. The male had still not moved, in fact he seemed to have slunked against the wall of the corridor where he had stood with what looked like relief playing across his face.

The slow moving kinetic projectile was almost within point defence range of the _Valiant._ Caius already had a plan brewing. If his on-board intruder truly had become too weak to go on or at least severely less capable then perhaps he could be overcome with numbers, a mass assault. Similarly the enemy cruiser would only ever fire to disable while Caius had some hundred of their race on board. They would not dare use their laser weapons (providing those three shots hadn't exhausted whatever power supply they used). He would engage the enemy vessel while preparing to jump to secondary relay on the other side of the system, following the _Niphon_ that had been dispatched earlier.

"Dexsia, all nearby guards are to converge on the male intruder." Caius ordered, knowing he could focus on other matters leaving it in her hands.

To his firearms lieutenant "Target kinetic projectile with point defence"

To the main navigation operator "…while taking evasive maneuvers in case it proves resilient to laser fire. Once projectile is destroyed charge for jump to relay 316, transmit mass as soon as we arrive"

And his crew spun into action.

Caius waited for the projectile to approach, evasive maneuvers had already placed its slow moving path no longer connecting with the _Valiant_ but Caius would not charge for a jump until he knew the danger was gone. His foresight proved correct when the projectile dispersed into a rapidly expanding fine cloud. A few seconds and it spread out too thin for any scans to detect.

Caius was about to question the communications officer aboard the _Valiant_ who operated the external sensors what had happened when at that moment all over the exterior of the ship sensors registered a million tiny explosions. Beginning at the front and flowing down to the back, wreathing the entire outside in fire in the less than a second. The end result, total loss of all external sensors or indeed any fixture that had been above the main armour layer. The outside of the _Valiant_ had been scoured clean and smooth, rendered blind.

The male alien rose, and began walking toward the bridge as guards were mere seconds away. They would engage him well before he reached the bridge. It didn't matter, with sensors and any ability to navigate gone the _Valiant_ was dead in the void. The enemy vessel would surely board them shortly, with far more than two random crew members from a destroyed wreck. These would be trained in boarding action.

He'd gave it a good show, but it was time. "Dexsia"

His voice was steady and calm, Dexsia nodded and held her key card over the terminal.

Caius held his own too, before the final gesture he initiated a message that played all across the _Valliant's_ decks "Crew of the _Valiant_ , it has been an honour to be your captain. Spirits Protect".

All across the _Valiant_ Turians paused in shock for a brief moment, before solemnly uttering their final words.

Then the _Valiant_ ceased to be.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - :

 **2 Weeks after First Contact** / Council Space, The Citadel, _Councillor Spartacus' Chambers_ :

"Trust me, he found a way"

Spartacus let out a long sigh, Turian doctrine should have handled this successfully, the protocols were airtight. Tested and Proven. Never would the Turian Councilor have expected one of his own race to so utterly fail in the execution of their duties.

That's not what happened, and so here he was with the Salarian Councilor.

Spartacus repeated his practiced reasoning "When the Hierarchy received Captain Caius' message it was decided to handle the matter internally. We would reach a peaceful solution and contain the situation before bringing it to the attention of the Council."

The explanation was a weak one. The main motivation for the Hierarchy's initial secrecy was simply reputation. Turians already had a slightly derogatory reputation for being trigger happy, unnecessarily escalating situations; even though Captain Caius had followed Council protocol, the specifics of the first contact event would not have been spun favorably in the galactic media if their wasn't some resolution to placate them. The Hierarchy needed this tied in a bow before it went public.

Spartacus had a feeling Councilor Valern knew all this, other misgivings aside he deeply respected Salarian intellect and wit. There was one truth he could say with full confidence though "Turians don't pass off their problems to others".

"Very Well" Valern responded "Explanation of motive suffices for now. Now for the general…"

As Valern spoke his omni tool brought up a display summarizing General Arterius' career achievements, aside some minor infractions in his early career the General was highly commended and clearly a very capable soldier. It was certainly not surprising he had come to command one of main Turian fleets just a few short months ago.

Valern got to the heart of the matter "What was his folly?"

Spartacus took one last deep breathe before beginning to describe how everything fell apart. "2 Weeks ago the Hierarchy instructed the General to detach a small contingent from the fleet that was stationed a half dozen systems over to render aid and security to Captain Caius' patrol, they would arrive in system EDX-243 5 hours after first contact…"

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - :

 **5 Hours after First Contact** / Relay 314 system (EDX-243)

The Relay caught the infinitesimal mass of 2 Cruisers and 9 Frigates entering EDX-243, returning them to normal mass. On the smaller side given the circumstances but well within the range of discretion protocol awarded General Arterius following the Hierarchies' instructions. Or at least it would have been if they had not immediately been followed by 112 frigates, 43 cruisers and 3 dreadnaughts. Not a detachment, the entire fleet under General Arterius' command had arrived in system. Just in time to observe the light bearing witness of alien ship's arrival, destruction of the Turian frigates and the _Valient_ ' _s_ crippling and self-destruction to reach them.

AN:  
Well there it is. Hope you guys like it.  
I do apologise for the delay, this has sat 95% complete for a month. I don't like to publish a chapter until I pretty much finish the one after it, prevents retroactive editing.

For those that have expressed concern, no this will not just be a story about military engagements nor will it be a one side wipes the floor with the other guys story.


End file.
